50 Getting to the Coliseum

Micu and Jayce chatted about last years matches. Their knowledge of the best way to approach matches like this would impress even veteran competitors. Ralnas had joined them a few minutes ago but was just listening intently as he devoured his breakfast. There had never been a reason for him to focus so thoroughly on tactics with the two of them on his team so he just listened and tried to translate their musings into things he could use in the matches.

A buzzing sound interrupted their discussion. Jayce raised an eyebrow as he watched Micu's arm vibrate. "You going to answer that...?" Micu looked down at the ID of the person calling him and paled. "It's Isabel guys." Instantly both of his friends were standing behind him to check the ID for themselves. "I can't believe it, my relationship advice worked!" Ralnas was beaming with pride. Jayce stifled a laugh, "you should probably answer it then. Could be your future wife." Micu pushed the two of them away from him and answered. "Hello?" Ralnas whispered, "put it on speaker!" Jayce nodded emphatically. Micu moved as discretely as he could to put it on speaker as his friends looked on excitedly.

"Hey, Micu! It's Isabel!" Micu smiled at her projected face. "Hey, Isabel! What's up...?" She smiled and sent him a picture of the schedule. "We're playing each other in the second round. Well, it's your first round, but still!" Micu gulped, "oh really? That's cool!" She nodded, "good luck!" "You too!" Micu smiled as wide as he could but Isabel had already hung up.

Micu slowly turned to face his friends. "That was awesome!" Jayce and Ralnas exchanged confused glances. "It was?" Micu sighed contently and stared off into space. Jayce groaned and sat back in the chair he had been in before. Ralnas found his reaction hilarious and began filming him secretly on his watch. "Micu why are you so happy right now?" "Isabel called me to wish us good luck. She's so amazing." Ralnas held his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Jayce noticed him recording and decided to take over the conversation. "But isn't that just a nice thing to do when you compete against a former classmate?" Micu shook his head vigorously. "Only people who really care about their classmates would even think of checking who they play next. She definitely did it because she thinks we're incredible." Jayce pretended to throw up and gagged, "ugh you're being so disgustingly lovestruck I could die." Ralnas couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.

Micu awoke from his daydreams and noticed Ralnas recording him. "I would recommend you delete that before I cause you to die every round." The laughter stopped cold and Ralnas looked at him with worried eyes. "You wouldn't actually do that...right?" Micu shrugged, "accidents happen." Ralnas made a series of annoyed grunts before he finally decided to delete the video and return to eating his breakfast.

Jenira finally descended the stairs and noticed there was an odd atmosphere in the room. "Did I miss something?" Micu looked at her studiously before answering, "Isabel called us to wish us good luck." Jenira paused, "she did?" "No she called Micu to wish him good luck, and now he's trying to cover up the loverboy side of him by acting all cool and calculating," Jayce said while smirking at Micu's reddening face. Jenira nodded with understanding and sat down to enjoy her breakfast. "So how did it go?" Micu's face was conflicted between being excited and being rational. "It went well I think?" Jenira smiled and started eating.

Micu was lost in his own head again and didn't react when Jayce reopened the clips of last year and began to review them again. Ralnas watched his friend starstruck with equal parts fascination and fear. He leaned over and whispered into his sister's ear. "You think I'll ever be in love like that?" Jenira considered it while she chewed on a piece of bacon. "No, I don't think so. You don't like to commit to girls. You'll have girls look at you like that though." Ralnas' ego swelled and as he ate he imagined the fans throwing themselves at him for a wink or a smile. He sighed contently.

Jayce paid them no mind and started pointing out things he and Micu had noticed to Jenira. "Looks like the map stays the same through every round. So I think the first round it would be worth it to take it slow and explore the map for later battles. Even if that means we lose." Jenira nodded as she listened. "Also you get to pick your weapons so we should try and find a balance of some sort. I was thinking you would take the laser machine gun." Jenira happily bit into a piece of toast, "sure thing." She said with a mouth full of bread. Jayce paused and smiled at her. He mouthed the word "cute" before continuing with his analysis. "Ralnas will take a shotgun or a melee weapon up to him. I'll take the standard assault rifle and Micu will be our eye in the sky with a long range rifle. Depends on what the options are but that's my initial plan."

Micu had recovered and was nodding along with Jayce's plan. Ralnas was readjusting the compression sleeve he wore on his right arm. "I think that sounds perfect. I'll get close and end them myself." Jayce laughed, "I never expected anything less from you Ral." The four finished eating and called for the taxi Ionas had reserved for them to pick them up. "Don't we have to get on the elevator?" Ralnas asked as they lounged in the living room. Micu gave him an inquisitive look, "for what reason?" "So the taxi can get us?" Micu laughed, "or it can fly up to the balcony and pick us up right here?" Ralnas grimaced, "right I forgot about that." All four laughed and boarded the taxi together.

Arriving just outside the Royal Coliseum Ralnas stepped out of the taxi slowly and scanned the area. "Looks alright. I think we're good to get to the competitor area." The other three disembarked from the taxi and followed after him. As soon as Jayce and Jenira had stepped into the open square in front of the Coliseum they heard a shout, "Jayce! Jenira! Please, a moment for an interview!" Ralnas and Micu were already scurrying into the competitor area laughing with glee. "Sometimes I hate them," Jayce said ruefully as he watched them safely escape behind the robot guard. Jenira nodded as she was annoyed with them as well. They turned and gasped as they saw a horde of reporters mobbing towards them.

"Maybe we should have run?" Jayce whispered. "Too late now." "Ugh, this is going to suck so bad." Jenira elbowed him playfully, "let's just have fun with it." Jayce sighed loudly and then smiled as the reporters came within a few feet of them. Camera bots swirled around them and were already recording every single action they made. Jayce straightened his back, "what can we do for you all today?" The lead reporter whose voice they recognized as the one who had initially called out to them took a quick breath before asking her first question.

"We have unconfirmed reports that the first match you were scheduled to participate in today has been forfeited by the opposing team, is this true?" Jayce nodded, "yeah, unfortunately, they decided that they preferred to progress through the loser bracket. We hope that people won't be too disappointed." The reporters who didn't have recording devices or preferred not to use them scribbled furious notes as he spoke. Jenira marveled at how quickly they wrote and glanced around at the twenty or so reporters that had gathered around them. "Great thanks for that Jayce. The second question, team Pure has shattered because of your performance in the first elimination exam. Care to share any thoughts on the matter?"

Jayce glanced at Jenira and she shrugged. "We're sad about team Pure. I'm sure that I wasn't the only reason that they fell apart but my team and I have good relations with Anna and I'm sure we'll be talking to her soon." Jayce was trying his best to speak like he had seen his idols speak during interviews. Internally Jenira was surprised by how confident he sounded. She couldn't stop herself from admiring him speaking so clearly and diplomatically in their first true reporter mob. The reporters, however, also noticed her gaze and quickly latched on to this as a potential story. "Great answer Jayce. The third question, are you and Jenira dating?"

Jayce had been expecting a lot of questions about the team Pure situation and had somewhat mentally prepared for them but this one was a total shock to him. He was stunned and couldn't get his mouth to form words for a few seconds. During this dead silence, Jenira's eyes had widened and she involuntarily had stepped closer to him. Jayce finally settled his mind and stared at the reporter. "I don't think it's any of your business what our relationship is." A wide grin blossomed on his face, "However, I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to be with her." An explosion of questions bloomed from his answer and Jayce dug his heels in as he prepared to answer them as best he could.

Jenira, however, was blushing profusely. They hadn't really talked about their relationship status or made anything official with the other. Even though they had now spent two nights together she wasn't sure if Jayce was mentally able to handle being in a committed relationship with her with everything else that was going on. For him to just come out and tell the whole world that the two of them were together blasted away her composure. She looked up at him and couldn't stop herself from smiling the way he had when she had first kissed him. The whole time his mouth was moving as he answered question after question but she didn't hear a thing. Instead, all she heard was "I'm proud to be with her," repeating over and over in her head. As she recovered from the initial shock she reached up and kissed his cheek before turning to the gathered reporters. "That's all the time we have for questions. Sorry everyone we need to go and prepare."

The reporters were more than happy with what they had gotten out of their unexpected interview and there were plenty of storylines for them to sell to their editors. Anna and Chiron's Chosen relationship, Jenira and Jayce dating, the two members who ran from the media. They happily opened a path in their mob and allowed the two competitors to pass through into the competitor area.

Once inside Jayce heard the same question from three voices and three different moods behind the words. "You and Jenira are dating now?" Jayce grinned and glanced at Jenira. "I guess so, they're probably already publishing pictures." Ralnas released a tiny breath into the air as he tried to calm himself, Micu smiled and nodded with approval, and Jenira wrapped him in her arms and kissed him softly. Once she let go of him Ralnas rolled his eyes. "Ew." Jayce and Jenira laughed and the four of them headed to the registration desk teasing Ralnas. Micu paused and considered something, "what do you think your celebrity couple name is going to be?"